The present invention relates primarily to flashlights, and in particular, to a miniature hand-held flashlight.
Flashlights of varying sizes and shapes are well-known in the art. In particular, certain of such known flashlights utilize two or more dry cell batteries, carried in series in a cylindrical tube serving as a handle for the flashlight, as their source of electrical energy. Typically, an electrical current is established from one electrode of the battery through a conductor to a switch, then through a conductor to one electrode of the lamp bulb. After passing through the filament of the lamp bulb, the electrical circuit emerges through a second electrode of the lamp bulb in electrical contact with a conductor, which in turn is in electrical contact with the flashlight housing. The flashlight housing usually provides an electrical conduction path to an electrical conductor, generally a spring element, in contact with the other electrode of the battery. Actuation of the switch to complete the electrical circuit enables electrical current to pass through the filament, thereby generating light which is typically focused by a reflector to form a beam of light.
The production of light from such flashlights has often been degraded by the quality of the reflector utilized and the optical characteristics of any lens interposed in the beam path. Moreover, intense light beams have often required the incorporation of as many as seven dry cell batteries in series, thus resulting in a flashlight having significant size and weight.
Efforts at improving such flashlights have primarily addressed the quality of the optical characteristics. The production of more highly reflective, well-defined reflectors, which may be incorporated within such flashlights, have been found to provide a more well-defined focus thereby enhancing the quality of the light beam produced. Additionally, several advances have been achieved in the light admitting characteristics of flashlight lamp bulbs.
Since there exists a wide variety of uses for hand-held flashlights, the development of the flashlight having a variable focus, which produces a beam of light having a variable dispersion, has been accomplished. However, such advances have heretofore been directed at "full-sized" flashlights.
In a flashlight which is made of metal body such as aluminum many manufacturing processes are necessary to ensure that effective electrical conductivity and contact can be maintained through the metal body. These processes can be relatively expensive steps in the overall manufacturing procedures. Some of these processes require multiple machining, anodizng and degreasing steps of the various metal elements. Moreover, it is desirable to ensure that the electrical conductivity between conductive elements does not deteriorate due to corrosion effects which may be caused by electrolysis through the interaction between different kinds of metal, such as copper and aluminum, which may form part of the electrical circuit.